Josip Juraj Strossmayer University of OsijekAcademy of Arts and Culture in OsijekOsijek

Defense date and country

2019-07-05, Croatia

Scientific / art field,discipline and subdiscipline

FIELD OF ARTArt of MusicMusic Education

Abstract

Students with disabilities are increasingly integrated into a regular educational process. In that way, they are offered equal opportunities as other participants in regular school programs. Inclusion in creasingly becomes the subject of various theoretical and scientific papers but in order to know whether it has fulfilled its potential and what steps are needed to promote inclusive processes it is necessary to explore the practical work. The role of teachers in inclusive education is expanding into several spheres and is being updated as well as teaching strategies, methods and procedures in work. The teacher is no longer just someone who teaches content but becomes someone who teaches others how to learn. This paper sought to explore how music teachers from Republic of Croatia create teaching stategies for teaching music. The goal was to find out who was the fokus of their choice in teaching strategies and what problems they encountered. It also sought to investigate whether the education of current elementary music teachers was geared toward developing competence for inclusive work as well as whether they considered themselves competent to work in that area. Research was conducted with interview and it involved five music teachers working in Osijek. Most of the teachers answered that they put the students with disabilities in focus when choosing strategies. They have gained previous knowledge only through teaching and they still do not consider themselves competent enough. It is concluded that it is necessary to organize additional music teacher education for working with students with disabilities through various practical workshops and seminars. It is also necessary to organize a college degree that will prepare future music teachers to work in inclusion. Keywords: students.